APRC to continue without JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 December 2006, 10:58 GMT]All Parties Representative Committee (APRC) would continue to meet to formulate a political consensus in finding a solution to the ethnic conflict. The withdrawal of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would not deter the functioning of the APRC, said Minister Tissa Vitarane, Chairman of the APRC Wednesday.

Mr. Vitarane who is also a Minister for Science and Technology in the preset government added that the next meeting of the APRC would be held on Monday. He expressed hopes that the two representatives of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) would participate in the next APRC meeting.

Vitarane said further that even after JVP backed out of the committee, APRC is still have thirteen parties. Moreover, SLFP and UNP are represented in the committee and this is enough to convince the LTTE that the majority is backing this final solution, he added.

The UNP representatives did not attend earlier meetings of the APRC due to the opposition by the JVP for giving two places for the UNP in the APRC as other parties had been allowed to nominate one representative each, sources said.

Meanwhile, the UNP has supported the report submitted by the Experts panel Committee "A" as a basis for finding a political solution to the ethnic crisis, sources said.

The JVP charged at the Tuesday press briefing that President Mahinda Rajapakse appointed the APRC experts panel just to help with the APRC to define certain terms, elaborate and explain certain issues. They were not authorized to make recommendations for the resolution of the national question.